Articles of rattan furniture



April 7, 1970 KAM WAH WONG 3,504,942

ARTICLES OF RATTAN FURNITURE Filed April 12, 1968 3 SheetsSheet 1 INVENTOR Wave, Km W417 April 7, 1970 KAM WAH WONG ARTICLES OF RATTAN FURNITURE S Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 12, 1968 IN VE N TOR wa/ve, KAM WA H April 7, 1970 KAM WAH WONG 3,504,942

r 7 ARTICLES RATTAN FURNITURE Filed April 12, I968 V 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTION WOMi, KQM- WAH United States Patent US. Cl. 297-440 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Rattan furniture such as chairs, tables and the like built up of preformed units each of which is a rigid, nondistortable and self-sustaining structure so that when the units are fixed together solely by screws to form the article no additional bracing means is required.

This invention relates to articles of rattan furniture such as side chairs, arm chairs, rocking chairs, settees, beds, tables and the like.

The general method of constructing rattan furniture has not changed for many years. The straight rattan poles are cut to length, some are used straight, some are bent into appropriate shape and then appropriate poles are bound together to form the article. However, the assembled and finished article inevitably has an irregular shape which occupies a great deal of space and makes handling difficult. Also, the cost of transportation of these irregularly shaped articles is extremely high because the cost is normally dependent on the space occupied.

One way of reducing transportation costs is to endeavour to construct the articles in such a manner that they will nest together. This results in the nested articles taking up a large amount of space and the packages of nested articles are heavy. If the nested articles are stored in a cardboard carton or a carton of similar material, the probability is that the carton will become damaged during transportation because of the heavy nature of the articles and their irregular shape. To store the articles in wooden cases is expensive and this makes the weight of the package even greater. Therefore, the most common manner to pack rattan articles is by the use of a very rough cloth, for example, burlap. However, burlap is very soft and offers little resistance to breakage of the articles during handling and a great number of rattan articles are damaged during transportation because of this. Further, the use of this manner of packaging has the disadvantage that when the articles are to be sold, unless all the articles in the bale are to be sold at one time, the bale has to be sewn up again in order to preserve the remaining articles. This is a waste of labour and expense.

There are therefore a considerable number of diificulties in the manufacture and handling of rattan furniture because of their inherent nature, with the consequence that the cost of purchasing an article of rattan furniture is high.

Rattan as a material is very different in many respects from ordinary wood. Whereas wood is hard and rigid, rattan, although tough, is softer and more flexible. It is quite possible to build up a wooden article of furniture which is quite stable and will not break down easily but if the same principles of construction are employed with rattan furniture, it has been found that the resulting article is most unstable unless the rattan poles are bound together tightly by the use of binding. It is possible to use the combination of Wood and rattan in order to build articles of furniture, but lovers of rattan furniture will not accept these spurious imitations which are not genuine articles of rattan furniture.

If the nature of rattan is fully studied, it is possible to overcome or minimise most of the above problems and 3,504,942 Patented Apr. 7, 1970 the basis for the present invention has been a close study of the properties of rattan which has resulted in a new approach to the construction of articles of rattan furniture. It should be mentioned that due to the inherent elasticity of the fibres of rattan, screws may be used to fix the rattan poles together and these screws are not abraided as is frequently the case with the use of ordinary wood. Therefore the use of screws is a good substitute for the bindings previously employed so long as certain other considerations are borne in mind during the design of the rattan furniture.

It is the main object of this invention to provide articles of rattan furniture each of which may be transported as separate preformed units and which may be assembled to form a rigid and sturdy structure without the use of skilled craftsmen.

According to the present invention there is provided an article of rattan furniture comprising a substantially horizontally disposed load bearing unit and a plurality of support units adapted to be fixed to the said horizontally disposed unit, wherein the horizontally disposed unit and the support unit are all formed as non-distortable and self-sustaining structures so that, when the units are fixed together to form the article, no additional bracing means is required.

In order to illustrate the invention three examples of articles of rattan furniture constructed in accordance with the invention will now be described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of four separate units which are adapted to be fixed together to form a side chair;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the side chair formed by the units of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a rear perspective view of the side chair of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of four separate units which are adapted to be fixed together to form an arm chair; and

FIG. 5 is a front perspective view of the arm chair formed by the units of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of three units which are adapted to be fixed together to form a coffee table; and

FIG. 7 is an underneath perspective view of the coffee table formed by the units of FIG. 6.

Referring first of all to the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, it will be seen from FIG. 1 that the chair is built up of two side units 1 and 2, a seat unit 3 and a back unit 4. The side units 1 and 2 are formed of suitably shaped rattan poles and each forms a support unit for the seat unit 3. The units 1 and 2 are formed as mirror images one of the other and each consists of a front member 5, two rear members 6 and 7, a top member 8, an intermediate bracing member 9, two shaped bracing members 10 and 11 and back support members 12 and 13. The members 5 to 13 are attached together by screws to form non-distortable and self-sustaining structures. The seat unit 3 consists of front and rear members 14 and 15 and side members 16 and 17 attached together by screws and carrying a seat 18 which forms the load bearing surface. Pivotally attached to the seat unit 3 by hinge 19, is a front support or bracing unit 20 having front legs 21 shaped from a single rattan pole, a straight cross-bracing member 22 and a curved bracing member 23. The seat unit 3, together with its attendent front support or bracing unit 20, is formed into a non-distortable and self-sustaining structure and the front support or bracing member 20 can be moved about hinge 19 to lie flat on seat unit 3 for storage and transportation purposes. The back unit 4 is built up of side members 24, 25, 26 and 27 with 3 straight cross bracing members 28 and 29 with side support members 30, 31, 32 and 33. The back unit 4 carries a back rest 34 and the entire unit is built up as a nondistortable and self-sustaining structure by the use of screws.

The four units 1, 2, 3 and 4 are fitted together to form the chair illustrated in FIGS.:2 and 3 by the use of screws and because each of the individual units are self-sustaining structures, the assembled chair will be a very rigid chair with the advantage that no additional bracing means is required. If the chair is to be transported after erection, it is a simple matter to withdraw the screws and pack the units 1 to 4 in a relatively small package. The chair may be erected at its destination by unskilled labour.

It will be appreciated that the member 21 lies in a substantially vertical plane immediately beneath the member 14 of the seat unit 3 and since the leg portions of the member 21 are substantially vertically disposed, these will transmit directly the load which is imposed on the seat unit 3 thus giving firm support for the seat.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is provided two side units 35 and 36, a seat unit 37, and a back unit 38. The two side units 35 and 36 are formed as mirror images one of the other and each consists of a front and top member 39, a rear member 40, three connected fore and aft members 41, 42, and 43, a curved bracing member 44 and vertical bracing members 45. All of these members are fixed together by screws to form a non-distortable and self-sustaining structure. The seat unit 37 consists of front and rear members 46 and 47 and side members 48 and 49 with underneath bracing members 50 and 51 and curved bracing members 52 and 53. Substantially horizontally disposed slats form the seat 54 which forms the load bearing surface. All the members of the seat unit 37 are attached together by screws to form a non-distortable and self-sustaining structure, and the bracing members 50, 51, 52 and 53 obviously form a nondistortable and self-sustaining bracing unit lying in a substantially vertical plane. The back unit 38 consists of side members 55, 56, 57 and 58, lower cross members 59 and 60 and upper cross member 61, 62 and 63. The members 60 and 61 are connected by vertical back rest members 64. A curved bracing member 65 is also provided. All the members which form the back unit 38 are fixed together by screws and because each individual unit is a self-sustain- The units 35, 36, 37 and 38 are all connected together to form the arm chair illustrated in FIG. by the use of screws and because each individual unit it is a self-sustaining structure, so the finished article will be a very rigid structure.

The front portions of members 43, on top of which the side members 48 and 49 of the seat unit 37 bear, are directly supported by substantially vertical members 66 (see particularly FIG. 5) whereby the load on the seat unit 37 is transmitted directly through the said members 66.

Referring now to FIGS. 6 and 7, a wooden table top 67, which is the load bearing unit, has four identically formed support units 68, 69, 70 and 71 each consisting of a curved leg member 72, a straight cross bracing member 73 and a curved bracing member 74. The support or bracing units 68 and 69 are hingedly connected to the table top 67 by hinges 75 (only one of which can be seen in FIG. 7) so that these two support or bracing units 68 and 69 may be folded underneath the table top 67 in the manner indicated in FIG. 6. When these units 68 and 69 are opened out immediately prior to erection of the table, the support unit 70 and 71 may be attached to the units 68 and 69 by the use of screws to form the structure illustrated in FIG. 7. Each of the units 68, 69, 70 and 71 and indeed also the table top 67, is a non-distortable and self-sustaining structure and when all of these units are fixed together by the use of screws, the coffee table will be a very rigid structure.

It will be appreciated that the above three articles of furniture which have been described are merely illustrative of a considerable number of articles of furniture which may be formed in accordance with the present invention by utilising the principle that each of the individual units which go to make up the assembled article is itself a non-distortable and self-sustaining structure which takes up little space in packing and which can be attached to its associated units by the use of screws to form a very rigid finished article which will not distort during use.

What is claimed is:

1. An article of rattan furniture comprising a substantially horizontally disposed load bearing unit;

a bracing unit made of rattan connected to said load bearing unit, and lying in a substantially vertical plane; and

a plurality of support units made of rattan and secured by screws to said load bearing unit and said bracing unit,

wherein the horizontally disposed unit, the rattan bracing unit, and the rattan support units are all formed as nondistortable and self-sustaining structures, so that when said rattan units are fixed together by said screws to form the article, no additional bracing means is required.

2. An article of rattan furniture as claimed in claim 1, in which the improvement further comprises at least one of the said support units having at least one vertically disposed member positioned so that any load on the horizontally disposed unit is transmitted directly through the said members of the support units.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 262,543 8/1882 Heywood et al 297440 499,798 6/ 1893 OKeefe 297446 583,385 5/1897 Mayers 297446 842,289 8/1907 Calef 297446 X 1,524,330 1/1925 Zinkgraf et al 297440 X 3,177,036 4/1965 Halter 297454 C. A. NUMBERG, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

